| Danny Mortimer Chief Executive NHS Employers 2 Brewery Wharf Kendell Street Leeds LS10 1JR 4 January 2016 Dear Danny, I am writing in response to today’s ‘Summary offer to the BMA’ from NHS Employers/Department of Health. I should start by expressing both surprise and disappointment at the overall tone and content of this document which is more of a commentary - and a selective one at that - on issues central to the negotiations which have taken place over December. We do not believe that this document accurately reflects the position which we reached during these negotiations – specifically: 1. It does not accurately reflect the areas of alignment reached during the course of the negotiations. 2. It does not give the full picture, using unnecessarily provocative language and is either deliberately vague or omits altogether the BMA’s position, including areas where we believed we had reached agreement. As such, we believe it to be a misrepresentation of what we believed to be the current position. We are, therefore, unable to agree to this document and do not accept this Summary Offer. Based on this offer, the BMA has given notice of industrial action by junior doctors on the following dates: • 8am Tuesday, 12 January to 8am Wednesday, 13 January – Emergency care only • 8am Tuesday, 26 January to 8am, Thursday 28 January – Emergency care only •8am to 5pm, Wednesday 10 February – Full withdrawal of labour. At the same time, we would like to continue to build on those areas on which we are aligned as a result of the progress made in good faith during negotiations. These are set out in our proposal and position statement, drafted in response to your Summary Offer received this morning. The BMA response to today’s Summary Offer will follow by the end of the day – and we would like to use this as basis for continuing negotiations. As you know, the BMA initiated the involvement of Acas in opening negotiations in December and we would strongly urge that they join talks again. As you will be aware, this is not the position which the BMA has sought, as demonstrated by the temporary suspension of industrial action at the end of November. We have consistently been clear that we want to reach a negotiated agreement to achieve a contract that is safe for patients, fair for junior doctors and sustainable for the NHS. This is critical to ensuring a first-class health service and the quality of care which we want for patients and I would like to reiterate my considerable regret that the Government’s offer does not allow us to move forward on this. Yours sincerely, Dr Johann Malawana Chair, BMA junior doctors committee cc. Tim Sands, Department of Health |